This Sunday at Kansas
Speedway will mark AJ Allmendinger’s 2nd start in the NASCAR Cup
series after being reinstated by the sanctioning body in September. It will
also be his 2nd start in the #51 Phoenix Racing Chevrolet owned by James Finch.
Last Saturday night at
Charlotte AJ was able to garner a 24th place finish for the Phoenix
Racing team even after having to serve a penalty under green flag conditions
for an uncontrolled tire during the prior pit stop. But most importantly, AJ
finished the race with the car intact and had a solid top-20 run going before
having to serve the pass-thru penalty.
The hopes and expectations
for Sunday’s race in the Kansas heartland are much the same as they were last
Saturday night. For AJ to get as much speed as he can out of the #51 machine
while making sure to finish every lap of the race. The team and driver have
much to learn about each other, but fortunately have two extra days to work
together prior to this weekend’s racing event. Due to the reconfiguration of
the race track, NASCAR is allowing the Spring Cup teams to get some extra
practice on Wednesday and Thursday.
AJ is no stranger to finding
speed at the Kansas racetrack. In April of this year he sat on the pole and led
the first 44 laps while driving the #22 for Penske Racing. A fuel injection
problem brought an end to the dominant performance in the early part of the
race, however. Prior to the 2012 Spring race AJ’s best finish was 9th
at the track.
Phoenix Racing had a good
showing at Kansas in April also. Kurt Busch qualified the #51 Chevy 14th
on the grid and brought it home in 17th place. The reconfiguration
of the track will be new for all the drivers and should even the playing field.
With two extra days of practice there are high hopes that the Phoenix Racing
team will have another successful outing with AJ behind the wheel.
Testing runs from 2-6pm/et on
Wednesday and 9:30-12:30pm/et on Thursday. The weekend events start at
12:30pm/et on Friday with the first scheduled practice. Qualifying coverage will
start at 5:00pm/et on ESPN2. There are two rounds of practice scheduled for
Saturday: 11:00-11:50am/et and 1:50-2:50pm/et. The race will be broadcast on
ESPN with pre-race ceremonies starting at 2:00pm/et on Sunday.
Photo courtesy @PhoenixRacing51
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